Paris Letter: Are the kidnappers and murderers of the Islamic Army in Iraq amenable to pressure and reason? Do the men who have already shot dead or beheaded at least 16 of the 163 hostages they have taken this year have a heart? Given the circumstances, the wish expressed by Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin that France's unity in the face of its worse hostage crisis since the 1980s would "touch the heart of the kidnappers" seemed almost naive, writes Lara Marlowe
Hopes rose momentarily yesterday afternoon when the Saudi network al-Arabiya reported that French journalists Georges Malbrunot (41) and Christian Chesnot (38) were about to be freed. But the Association of Ulemas, the highest body of Sunni Muslim clerics, which has helped to obtain the release of other hostages in Iraq, then announced that they had not been able to contact the kidnappers and feared "a fatal outcome".
The kidnappers said they would kill Malbrunot and Chesnot last night if France did not abrogate its law on secularism in public schools, due to take effect tomorrow. Though the law bans all visible signs of religious affiliation, including crucifixes and skullcaps, it is widely perceived as "the headscarf ban", intended to stop Muslim girls wearing the hidjab in French classrooms.
Before it was passed last March, the legislation led to a long and heated domestic debate in France and protests throughout the Muslim and Arab world. Ayman al-Zawahri, one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants, threatened to punish France if it participated in the "hateful crusade" against Islam by forbidding veils in French schools. Analysts say Zawahri's warning, followed by the present threat, is evidence of ties between the Iraqi group and al-Qaeda. The very notion of secularism is alien to Muslim extremists, who equate it with atheism, a crime punishable by death.
In a video shown on the Qatari satellite television network al-Jazeera on Monday night, the French hostages appealed to President Jacques Chirac to repeal the "unfair and erroneous law" to save their lives. The French political class denounce the ultimatum as blackmail and French Muslims, many of whom oppose the law, are unanimous in condemning the kidnappers' threat.
Education Minister Francois Fillon stressed that the law on secularism "is in no way . . . against the Muslim religion" and promised that Muslim girls would not be turned away from classrooms tomorrow. But Fillon added: "We will not let this (secular) heritage be destroyed, nor will we allow our behaviour to be dictated from outside."
Though there is no question of rescinding the law, the French have done everything in their power over the past three days to obtain the freedom of Malbrunot and Chesnot. "The mobilisation and determination of French authorities is total," Mr Chirac said yesterday. Foreign Minister Michel Barnier travelled from Cairo to Amman and then to Alexandria yesterday, meeting Arab political and religious leaders. Mr de Villepin, the interior minister, and mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë attended prayers at the capital's main mosque, alongside relatives of the hostages.
To Baghdad, Paris dispatched Gen Philippe Rondot, a former French intelligence officer and Middle East specialist who helped negotiate the release of French hostages in Lebanon and engineered the capture of Illich Ramirez Sanchez, alias Carlos, in Khartoum in 1994.
Whatever hope remains for Malbrunot and Chesnot is based on the unprecedented number of appeals for their freedom. For the first time, the director of al-Jazeera television announced that his station "condemns the murder and kidnapping of journalists in Iraq, and demands the immediate liberation of the reporters."
No such appeal was made for Enzo Baldoni, the Italian journalist who was murdered on August 26th.
For eight days, until the Islamic Army in Iraq issued its demand on Saturday night, there was virtually no reaction here to the French journalists' disappearance. "Perhaps they were kidnapped by mistake; perhaps the kidnappers didn't know they were journalists and of French nationality," Pierrre Rousselin, Georges Malbrunot's boss at Le Figaro speculated. Because Paris opposed the invasion of Iraq, French journalists were thought to enjoy a form of immunity.
Several times, French reporters were detained and then freed after proving their nationality. "More and more often, American and British journalists are pretending to be French when they travel in dangerous areas," Georges Malbrunot wrote in an article just a few days before he was abducted.
The crisis has created a diplomatic row between the US-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Paris. In an interview with several newspapers, Allawi said the kidnapping of the French showed it was no longer possible to be neutral in Iraq. "What happened . . . to the French, and to those who like France opposed the war on terrorism, shows that no one will be spared. Terrorism knows no boundaries. Avoiding confrontation is not an answer," he said.
Mr Allawi's remarks were "unacceptable" because they "seem to cast doubt on the determination of France in the struggle against terrorism", a spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry said.